Terrible grinding following diff oil replacement e90 m3
Discussion
As above - when turning the whole car clunks and grinds and sounds horrendous. Took it straight back to the bmw dealership who did the work and they said it was normal - they even said a special oil was used as this was an issue previously with the oil they had used - they showed me a BMW alert that explained this.
They said “drive it on winding roads” but it could take 1000+ miles to go. I’ve done at least double that (on winding roads) and if anything it’s worse! I’m wondering if there is any oil at all in there.
Any experience of this? If they are at fault I’d like to be able to prove they’ve done something wrong as I feel some compensation is due, the noise has been mortifying during drives with colleagues etc and in multi-storey car parks the noise and juddering reverberates around the whole building and it can’t have been good for the diff or the drive chain in general!
Thanks
They said “drive it on winding roads” but it could take 1000+ miles to go. I’ve done at least double that (on winding roads) and if anything it’s worse! I’m wondering if there is any oil at all in there.
Any experience of this? If they are at fault I’d like to be able to prove they’ve done something wrong as I feel some compensation is due, the noise has been mortifying during drives with colleagues etc and in multi-storey car parks the noise and juddering reverberates around the whole building and it can’t have been good for the diff or the drive chain in general!
Thanks
You get this sometimes on the E60/E63 M5 M6s, you need to drive on full look left and right about 20 times
https://thumbsnap.com/f/1dUEcgcj

https://thumbsnap.com/f/1dUEcgcj

Edited by VeeTenM on Wednesday 1st April 19:36
Edited by VeeTenM on Wednesday 1st April 19:38
Happens on BTR LSDs on TVRs quite a bit; always oil related and when the precise specced formulation is deviated from.
Only suffered it once after sticking a Lucas Oil product in, sounded like the diff was tearing itself apart.
Refill with the correct Morris product and resolved. Bit of an eye opener.
Only suffered it once after sticking a Lucas Oil product in, sounded like the diff was tearing itself apart.
Refill with the correct Morris product and resolved. Bit of an eye opener.
OK so firstly you need to check that the BMW dealer used Castrol Syntrax diff oil...if they did then:
The noise you are experiencing is called slip /stick...where the clutch pack disks are grabbing then releasing far too aggressively.
You can add extra friction modifier..Opie oils sell some...to reduce/eliminate the noise.
Adding too much friction modifier will reduce the limited slip function of the diff.
So add a bit at a time until the noises are just about gone.
The noise you are experiencing is called slip /stick...where the clutch pack disks are grabbing then releasing far too aggressively.
You can add extra friction modifier..Opie oils sell some...to reduce/eliminate the noise.
Adding too much friction modifier will reduce the limited slip function of the diff.
So add a bit at a time until the noises are just about gone.
Presumably not just me thinking if it was fine and no noises when it went into the dealer, they change the oil, then it comes out grinding, that they should fix it? I mean, its pretty clear cut isn't it? Why should the OP f
k around with friction modifiers when the chumps at BMW screwed it up.

bmwmike said:
Presumably not just me thinking if it was fine and no noises when it went into the dealer, they change the oil, then it comes out grinding, that they should fix it? I mean, its pretty clear cut isn't it? Why should the OP f
k around with friction modifiers when the chumps at BMW screwed it up.

Don’t worry this exactly what I’ll do! 👍🏼
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